Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

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Coming down the road into the valley toward Queenstown and the Millbrook ResortNew Zealand
8 min read2015

Dateline February 10, 2015, Millbrook Resort and Queenstown

We came down into the valley to our final base in New Zealand, the Millbrook Resort, just outside Queenstown. The one-lane bridges in this part of the country are a queueing art form, watching the arrows to figure out who has the right of way. We checked into a two-bedroom cottage on the golf course. It was Pete's birthday on the 6th, so we let him pick dinner; he wanted to eat in. Janice and Bunny made the grocery run and came back with the most beautiful rainbow we had seen in a while. The week that followed was a series of rounds at Millbrook, a side trip to Arrowtown for Stephanie's recommended tapas at La Rumbla, an introduction to New Zealand's Blue Duck vodka, an extra night that Will Owen rescued for us when we found an error in our own schedule, a rained-out tee time at The Hills (refunded), a visit to the Kiwi Birdlife Park, the Queenstown gondola, and two old men attempting the Haka in front of an All Blacks poster. We close out New Zealand at Jack's Point, in the next post.

#new-zealand#south-island#queenstown
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Auckland's harbor and waterfront, cleaned up for the America's Cup defense in 2000New Zealand
5 min read2015

Dateline January 24, 2015, Auckland, Welcome to New Zealand

Out of Sydney on the morning flight to Auckland. Will Owen of Playing Around New Zealand, who would be our tour operator for the whole New Zealand leg of the trip, met us at the airport and got us checked into the Stamford Hotel on the harbor. A two-hour driving tour of the city the next morning: Mount Eden (an inactive volcano with views the length of the harbor), a stop at the stadium where the World Rugby Championships had been held, a stretch along the America's Cup waterfront, and along the beach communities where one resident in five seems to own a boat. In the afternoon, the ferry across to Waiheke Island for the Hop On bus, two wineries (Stonebridge first, Cable Bay second, the second clearly better), and a long conversation at Cable Bay with Lizzie Dunkley, four years into a solo trip around the world. Back into Auckland for the city's 175th birthday weekend, with an English contortionist folded into a glass box on the waterfront. In the morning, off to the Bay of Islands and our first round of New Zealand golf at Kauri Cliffs.

#new-zealand#auckland#mount-eden
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